We don’t know exactly how many dogs there are with their owners in Bucharest. Mayor Nikushor Dan estimates somewhere around 100,000. Of the information campaigns conducted so far by the Animal Control and Protection Authority, only about 30% of the households visited have had their dogs chipped and neutered. This is despite the fact that since 2015 it is illegal to own dogs that are not sterilized and microchipped, with fines of up to 10,000 lei. Every year, the Metropolitan City Hall conducts free sterilization programs and allocates funds for the sterilization of 5,000 dogs, but the money is not spent.

Why don’t people sterilize and chip their animals? I spoke with Doina Vella, a representative of a community organization that has dedicated itself to solving this problem since 2013, after the tragic death of Jonutz, a 4-year-old boy who was mauled by dogs in Sector 2.

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Doina Vella: It has been said for many, many years, only I have known this for 14-15 years, that the source of community animals, street dogs, which worries all of us, including dog lovers, because they do not belong on the street, are dogs in households, not sterilized.

There are many unsterilized dogs in Bucharest that breed because people want puppies from their dogs or they are very careless and the puppies end up staying. But mostly in Bucharest, according to my information, there are dogs dumped on the outskirts, from neighboring cities where until recently there were no sterilization programs. For only a few months, the Ilfov County Council has been running a continuous campaign in the settlements around Bucharest, but this does not happen for long, and we are talking here about processes that last for years. So the outskirts of Bucharest are full of abandoned dogs.

Everyone knows that once you chip a dog, you can never lose it

Why don’t people spay and microchip their dogs?

When we go door to door inviting people to come with their dogs for a free spay, we have these kind of promotions all the time, we hear the strangest things. Many refer to a religious reason, say that it is a sin, that they were left by God and that they must remain. Many anthropomorphize, you see them cringe at the idea of ​​neutering their dog as if it’s about them, I know it sounds weird but I see people’s reactions. In general, there are various reasons why people do not sterilize their dogs, it is an extremely unpopular measure.

And about microchipping, microchipping means legal liability and people are afraid of liability. If you have a microchipped dog and it goes out in public and bites someone or causes an accident that kills someone, I mean a car accident, the owner is responsible. And people do not want to take on such responsibility. Even when microchipping is done for free, people refuse.

I think everyone knows that when you microchip, you can no longer be a lost dog when something happens and you are responsible for it.

The fines for those who do not sterilize and chip their dogs are too high

Are fines a solution to the problem?

As always, a combined approach is needed, education that produces results in the medium to long term and coercion that produces results in the short term. I want to say that the fines are too high. In my opinion, it would be much more effective to have fines from 500 to 1,000 lei instead of 5,000 to 10,000 lei, but to have them imposed permanently. Because if you give a really big fine, especially to someone who can’t pay it, I don’t see what the point is. Often, these categories of population do not have the financial means and cannot pay these fines.

There is no unenforceable fine.

Judging by what you meet in the field, do people know what obligations rest on a dog?

When I meet people with dogs, I quickly turn to the question of whether the animals are sterilized. People are under the impression that they have a purebred dog, but they have no pedigree, they are mixed breeds, and they don’t even realize they need to be spayed, or if they do, they think that because they have purebred dogs, their dogs are not neutered. this legal obligation, which is absolutely wrong.

Euthanasia was not, is not, and never will be a solution

Is euthanasia the solution for stray dogs in Bucharest?

No, euthanasia was not, is not, and will never be the solution, because euthanasia treats the effects, not the causes. We have already passed two waves of euthanasia, we already have experience that proves that euthanasia did not affect the reduction of the population of stray dogs. The solution is obvious, sterilization, we have Law 258/26 September 2013, which in article 13, paragraph 2 provides for the obligation to sterilize all dogs of ordinary breeds and their hybrids. Virtually all dogs in Bucharest and Romania do not have the right to breed, a right that is difficult to obtain, so apart from a very small number of dogs, almost all dogs must be sterilized.

What the city hall has done so far, which has stopped euthanasia and keeps dogs in shelters and adoptions, is it right?

I think ASPA has changed a lot in the sense that I want it to change. First, he did not euthanize himself. It is filmed all the time. Anyone interested in seeing what ASPA captures can go to the 3 shelter pages. For several years, ASPA has published daily photos of the dogs captured the previous day. When they come to the shelter, the dogs are counseled and get the treatment they need, there is much more care for the dogs at the shelter, ASPA’s way of working is more transparent, and there is a huge amount of work being done to raise awareness on the adoption side. But as far as I know the shelters are very full because every day the breeders bring in other dogs and people don’t really accept.

How normal is it to keep a dog in a shelter? There were also situations when they sat there for 6-10 years.

I know they do euthanasia in the US, I don’t know what happens in France or Germany, the countries I look at more. Is it moral to keep a dog in a shelter for so long? Life in a shelter is clearly not life. On the other hand, killing so many animals cannot be a solution for me. But this is a very personal vision of a man who radically changed his life to try to be a small part of the solution. The solution is sterilization and adoption.

Doina Vella is a non-governmental organization that has been dealing with the dog problem since September 2013, rescuing abandoned dogs, giving them up for adoption, attracting funding from abroad for dog care and free sterilization campaigns, conducting small educational programs in schools. He has been a member of the Association of Dogs Without Borders of Romania for a year.